This invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for cutting a high-activity solid waste, and more particularly it is concerned with a method and an apparatus suitable for use in cutting, reducing and disposing a high-activity solid waste produced in a nuclear reactor, such as a used channel box (hereinafter FCB) or a used control rod (hereinafter CR).
Heretofore, high-activity solid wastes, such as FCBs or CRs, produced in a nuclear reactor have been stored in an elongated form in a spent fuel storage pool or a high-activity solid waste storage pool in a nuclear power plant. An FCB is an elongated box of rectangular cross-sectional form and a CR is crisscross in shape. Thus, when they are stored, they raise the problem that they have a very low storage density and a very large space is required for storing them. To obviate this problem, it has become necessary to cut the FCB and CR into shapes suitable for storing, such as planar plate shape, thereby improving storing efficiency. To meet this requirement, FCB cutting apparatus have already been developed. These apparatus rely on punching or shearing effected with rotary cutters and have suffered the disadvantages that it takes time to cut an FCB and it is impossible to cut a CR. As for cutting a CR, no suitable cutting method has yet been developed.